Beorn

That day, Allen, Alayen, and Deshavi had just returned from a patrol to the north. With the villagers clearing large stretches of farmland nearby, Allen had to send the cavalry on frequent patrols to ensure that small bands of Warg Riders would not suddenly attack those working in the fields. The villagers near Wilderness Village, meanwhile, were protected by the sentries stationed atop Carl Rock.

It was already noon when Allen returned to the village. As he reached the lord's longhouse, he saw Jeremus waiting for him at the entrance, which made him a little nervous. Ever since the village had been founded, Jeremus had been extremely busy. First he had tended to the wounded soldiers, then he had begun searching among the villagers for young people willing to study medicine-specifically, bright, quick-witted children between eight and twelve. He had actually found a few and opened a school with only a handful of pupils, intending to pass on his medical principles and skills. It was worth mentioning that, apart from a few plants, the ecology of Middle-earth differed little from that of Calradia, since the creators of both worlds had drawn on reality. Allen considered that fortunate. Had they ended up somewhere with entirely unfamiliar plants, more than half of Jeremus's medical expertise would have been rendered useless.

Normally, Jeremus had no time to seek Allen out, so whenever he did, he needed something. The last time, he had asked Allen to spend money on a large quantity of medical equipment. The simulator stocked all of it. Anything ordinary that existed in Calradia could be bought with Denars, but the prices were outrageous-far beyond anything Allen had imagined. A set of surgical instruments made from refined steel, along with a few ordinary glass bottles, had cost him over five hundred Denars. Jeremus had bought four or five sets at once, ostensibly to give his pupils a better learning environment, and Allen had ended up spending three or four thousand Denars.

This time, however, Allen had guessed wrong. Jeremus had not come to ask him to spend money. An unusual patient was lying in his hospital, and Allen needed to take a look.

The patient was an enormous man, at least two meters thirty or forty tall, with a thick beard covering his face and disheveled hair plastered to his head in clumps. When Allen saw him, he was lying across two beds pushed together, his entire body wrapped in bandages. A metal shackle encircled his left wrist. Clearly, he had escaped from somewhere, fought a brutal battle during his flight, and finally followed the Anduin River to Carl Rock.

Allen recognized him at once. This was Beorn, the skin-changer from the films. Some people online called him a bear-claw druid, but in fact, changing shape was his magic, an ability unique to his people.

Aside from his appearance, the shackle on his left wrist was what allowed Allen to recognize him immediately. The book had not described that detail, but the films had included it. In the films, Beorn had mentioned that his people were the mountains' earliest inhabitants. Half-orcs had come down from the north and frequently fought his kin. His entire family had been captured and put on display for the Half-orcs' amusement. Allen guessed that he had just escaped their captivity.

Allen had not expected to meet Beorn at this point. Neither the original book nor the films had explained exactly when Beorn began living near Carl Rock, and the two versions might well have differed. In the book, Beorn had a son and other kin. His son, Grimbeorn, did not live with him. On the night Beorn hosted Thorin's party, however, he had gathered with many great bears. Allen did not know whether his son had been among them. Some years after the Battle of Five Armies, Grimbeorn had succeeded the deceased Beorn as leader of their people.

In the films, on the other hand, Beorn said he was the last of his kind. Of course, that did not rule out his marrying and having children later. They were fully human, after all, just unusually tall and possessed of some special magic. But during the time he hosted Thorin, he had been alone.

While Allen was recalling what he knew about Beorn, a flurry of chatter came from outside. Klethi had heard that the villagers had pulled a giant over two meters tall from the water and had come to see the spectacle. Her arrival not only interrupted Allen's recollections but also woke the sleeping Beorn.

Waking to find himself in unfamiliar surroundings with a crowd gathered around him, Beorn abruptly sat up. His eyes were wary as he swiftly surveyed his surroundings and the people in the room. Only after a long while did he ask in a deep, rumbling voice, "Where am I? How long have I been unconscious? Who are you?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than something seemed to catch Beorn's eye. He stared at Klethi's neck and fell silent.

Allen approached the huge man, who was almost as tall as he was even while seated, and met his eyes. "Stranger, my friend, this is Wilderness Village. I'm Allen, its leader, and this is our hospital. You've been here for about half a day, I believe. Is there anything you need help with?"

Beorn said nothing. He raised his thick arm and pointed at Klethi's neck. Puzzled, Allen glanced back. The sapphire pendant glittered against her neck.

Allen held out a hand, signaling for Klethi to give him the pendant. Reluctant though she was, she took it off with an aggrieved look and handed it over. Allen placed the sapphire in Beorn's open left palm.

Beorn accepted the pendant without a word. He gazed quietly at the sapphire, gently stroking it with his right forefinger, then said, "This was a gift my younger brother gave his daughter. A year ago, his whole family was taken by a band of Half-orcs riding wolves. Stranger, it seems you've killed quite a few Half-orcs."

He handed the sapphire back to Klethi and told her, "Please take good care of it."

Then Beorn turned to Allen. "Thank you for treating me. I must leave now. I have to rescue my family. They're still prisoners of the Half-orcs. Farewell. If I have the chance someday, I will repay you."

As he spoke, Beorn stood and ducked out of the hospital.

Allen followed Beorn out of the wooden building and looked up at him. "You intend to rescue them while you're covered in wounds? All by yourself? What makes you think you can defeat the Half-orcs guarding them in your present condition?"

Beorn stopped and turned to look at Allen. He hesitated. He wanted to ask Allen for help, but he did not know how to begin. He was no gifted speaker, nor did he believe a few words from him could persuade this young leader, a complete stranger, to help.

Allen did not need him to ask. Seeing his conflicted expression, he said directly, "We both live in a land full of evil forces. We ought to help each other. Stranger, my friend, I can help you, but we need a plan. First, I need to know where they are."

A flicker of excitement crossed Beorn's face as he looked at Allen. He was poor at expressing himself, blunt in speech, and knew nothing of tact. In his urgency, he said in his deep, rumbling voice, "I know where they are. Bolg, the son of Azog the Defiler, is guarding them. There are several hundred Half-orcs. When I escaped, they were traveling through the tunnels, heading for Orc Town to put my kin on display. I know that tunnel. We can get ahead of them and set an ambush."

By the end, Beorn was speaking through clenched teeth. Clearly, he was still far from the composure he would show when he met Thorin.

"Very well, stranger, my friend. If you can provide a guide who knows the way, I believe I can help you."

Allen spoke with firm resolve as he looked at Beorn, then turned to issue orders to his followers:

"Alayen, notify Otta. Tell him to come see me immediately. I need his people's strength. Klethi, notify Ymira and have her prepare three to five days' worth of food that's easy to carry. I need it in two hours."

After giving Alayen and Klethi their orders, Allen turned back to Beorn. "I suggest you use this time to eat something and let our physician, Jeremus, examine your wounds properly. I need to gather some more men. Don't worry. We'll be leaving soon."

With that, Allen departed to find Gondin. He needed the strength of the Nord Royal Guards.

Two hours later, more than a hundred people had gathered at the village entrance. Besides the Woodland Dwellers who had recently joined Allen, there were Allen himself, Beorn, Alayen, Deshavi, and Klethi, who had eagerly invited herself along, as well as nine veteran Rhodoks shooters and ten Nord Royal Guards. Since they would be fighting in tunnels, Allen had not summoned the Swadia Knights. Bunduk and the Rhodoks Sharpshooters were left with Firentis. Allen also granted Firentis the authority to recruit members of the Rhodoks, telling him that the village's defense would be in his hands until Allen returned.

Once Allen had settled everything, he set off with the assembled party. He had explained the situation when summoning them, so their presence meant they had no objections to the mission.

The terrain of the Misty Mountains was complex, with cliffs, sheer rock faces, dense forests, waterways, valleys, and waterfalls. That was precisely why Allen had chosen the Woodland Dwellers, longtime residents of the mountains, as the main force for the ambush. Deshavi, Klethi, and the veteran Rhodoks crossbowmen also moved through the mountainous terrain with relative ease. Only Alayen and the ten Nord Royal Guards found the journey exhausting. Even with their equipment divided among more than a hundred people-Allen himself carried one man's helmet-they still trudged along, panting for breath.

Their situation improved somewhat after they passed through a concealed cave by torchlight and entered the tunnels of the Misty Mountains. Before entering, however, Allen ordered the soldiers to gather a large amount of firewood.

The tunnel paths were difficult too, but the terrain was less complicated than in the mountains. The ground was all stone, and the route was not entirely uphill; there were level stretches and descents as well. It was much easier going than the mountain trails.

Allen and Beorn talked continually as they traveled. Beorn could not understand why Allen, a complete stranger, would risk so much to help rescue his family. He asked the same question several times along the way, and Allen always answered, "Living in a place like this, we should help each other." "I have enough strength to help you now, so why wouldn't I?" "If I help you now, wouldn't you help me in the future?"

Those answers were not enough to dispel Beorn's doubts, but he could sense that Allen bore him no ill will. More than that, Allen had personally led his soldiers into the dangerous tunnels of the Misty Mountains to rescue his family. What more could Beorn ask? He had never been good at expressing himself, so eventually he stopped bringing up the subject.

Of course Allen bore him no ill will. He simply wanted to establish a friendly relationship with Beorn. He had no intention of making Beorn his subordinate. This was not the Three Kingdoms, where he needed to recruit mighty generals and strategists to attack rival lords. This was Middle-earth, and the enemy of the forces of order was plain to see. Every day, Sauron stared down from the Dark Tower with that great eye of his, watching all the good people. As long as they could stand together and help one another when danger came, that was enough. Why make things so complicated?

Besides, Beorn's people were skilled in many things. Not only were they good at training animals, they also knew how to make all sorts of dairy products and pastries, keep bees, produce large quantities of honey, and brew mead. Those were all things Allen would need in the future. Surely a town needed goods of its own to trade? These were all reasons for helping Beorn. Later, he could send a few clever, deft-handed villagers to learn from him. Beorn probably would not refuse. That would greatly improve the people's quality of life, and perhaps they could even mass-produce mead and trade it with the elves or Dwarves. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Of course, Allen's villagers were far too unfriendly toward animals. A great many of them were hunters, which might clash with the way Beorn's people lived. But Allen had never intended for Beorn to settle in his village. Wasn't there a vast Oakwood nearby, the very place where Beorn had lived in the original story? Allen had already decided to settle Beorn's family there, then turn it into a nature reserve and forbid the villagers from hunting in it.

Throughout the journey, Allen kept looking for a suitable ambush site. Beorn did not really understand such things. Allen suspected that Beorn's idea of an ambush amounted to suddenly leaping out from somewhere, plunging into the enemy ranks, and swatting them away with his enormous hands. But warfare did not work like that. Timing, terrain, and unity all mattered. There was no advantage of timing to be had now. The tunnels were pitch-black, and even by torchlight Allen could barely see clearly. Still, he intended to secure an advantage in terrain.

After roughly four hours in the tunnels, Allen soon found a suitable place. It was a river channel over a hundred meters long, only four or five meters across at its narrowest and perhaps ten or twenty at its widest. One side rose straight to the tunnel ceiling. On the other was an uneven cliff ledge fifty or sixty meters long, more than two meters wide along most of its length and roughly four or five meters high. Allen gravely asked Beorn to confirm whether Bolg's forces would pass this way. Once he received a definite answer, he ordered the entire party to halt.

Allen first told Klethi to find a way up the cliff. He himself slowly walked the entire river channel and examined the cliff face. After concluding that it would be difficult to climb anywhere along its length, he decided this would be their ambush site.

An ambush required extensive preparation. Allen first ordered Otta and the hundred-odd mountain dwellers to climb onto the ledge using a rope Klethi lowered. After some thought, he also sent Alayen and his personal guards up there, and had them carry all the gathered firewood onto the ledge as well.

Finally, he gave Otta several jars of oil and explained that they could use it to start fires quickly. Once Allen gave the signal, Otta and his men were to light the bundles of firewood and throw them into the enemy column. Not only would that spread panic among the enemy, but the flames would also allow Otta's men to shoot down at them from the ledge without harming the prisoners Allen wanted to rescue.

Allen, Beorn, Deshavi, and the ten Nord Royal Guards hid on this side of the river channel, waiting for Bolg's arrival. They would block the gorge's exit and stop the enemy's advance. For this mission, Allen had specifically ordered the Nord Royal Guards to bring their Nord Royal Shields. After all, shields were much more useful than great axes when blocking an enemy's path.

Of course, Allen did not intend to cut off every avenue of retreat. As he had said before, they were here to rescue people. If the enemy had no way out, heaven only knew what those vicious, cruel creatures might do.

Once all the preparations were complete, Beorn made some calculations and told Allen that, since Half-orcs preferred to move at night and generally rested during the day, the convoy escorting the prisoners would arrive in about half a day, sometime in the latter half of that night.

Allen considered this. It was already the afternoon of the following day, and everyone had traveled at least a hundred kilometers, part of it over mountain trails. To save time, he had allowed the soldiers only very brief rests along the way. To ensure they were ready for the coming battle, Allen ordered everyone to rest. They ate their cold, hard food, drank the boiled water prepared beforehand, and went to sleep.

After six hours of rest, Allen woke and roused his followers. He did not dare sleep too long. Though sentries were on watch, so many people waking all at once in a tunnel would certainly create enough noise to arouse the enemy's suspicion. Allen could not take that chance.

Afterward, everyone waited silently in the darkness for the enemy to arrive. It was agonizing. They could not speak or light a fire, and visibility was so limited that they could barely make out the companions beside them. For people who had spent their lives beneath the sun, it was difficult to endure.

That agonizing wait seemed to last forever, until faint sounds finally came from the far end of the tunnel.